


After darkness, light

by Shadowlover



Category: Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 12:36:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17043854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowlover/pseuds/Shadowlover
Summary: Varuléao - Like nightZenfath - Dew on the grassVaora - BlessingEathristh - The lowest point of a valleyHralbrek - Clouds like brambles





	After darkness, light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Varanu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varanu/gifts).



> Varuléao - Like night  
> Zenfath - Dew on the grass  
> Vaora - Blessing  
> Eathristh - The lowest point of a valley  
> Hralbrek - Clouds like brambles

At the top of a down, just below the crest of the hill, stood a large, straight copse of beech trees, twisted roots winding their way through sandy soil, and wide branches spreading into a green canopy beneath which the light was dim and watery. On this morning, streamers of mist clung to the trees of the hanger like gossamer spiders' webs.Below, the mist was thicker, so that the down seemed an island of grass in a grey-white sea, pierced only by a distant steeple. Beneath the largest of the trees a rabbit hole nestled; almost invisible between the gnarled arms of two of the twisted roots.

A young rabbit, very large for her age, slipped out between the roots and moved slowly across the dew-laden grass. She moved confidently and with an air of purpose, her nose twitching in the crisp morning air. After a few hands of meters, she paused and looked back towards the beech tree. Her passage had left a dark trail across the dew-silvered grass, and as her gaze reached it, a shiver rippled across her fur. A moment later, she shook her head as if driving away flies, and bent down to _siflay_.

A little while later, another rabbit emerged. Unlike the first, she hesitated for a few long moments in the mouth of the hole before hopping out into the grass. She grazed her way slowly towards the first rabbit, nibbling for a few moments and then sitting up to look around before continuing.

"You're out early, Varuléao," she said when she was close enough to speak to the other rabbit.

"I was dreaming, and when I woke I thought I'd come out and see the dawn," Varuléao replied. "I felt like some sun and fresh air".

"You could have woken one of us. Unless... your dream - nothing's going to go wrong for the warren, is it?"

"No, Zenfath, it's nothing like that. I do have a feeling, though I'm not sure of quite what it means yet. Like the mist, if you try and catch hold of it it isn't really there. But," she looked back at the dark trail which was only now starting to fade and shivered again, "the path is dark, that much I do know."

"Let's enjoy the morning for now?" said the other. "I'd like a cowslip, if you can find one; and if anyone can, it's you."

Varuléao nodded, and the two hopped slowly across the hill towards the bank where cowslips were more often to be found.

~~~~~

Several young does were sharing a burrow tucked away near the entrance to the warren that came out in the hangar. It was a little small for them all, but they seemed content in each other's company. After a while, one of them, who was called Vaora, stirred and looked at the others.

"Varuléao has been wandering off alone a lot lately," she said thoughtfully.

"Yes," Eathristh replied. "I've seen her looking oddly at things I can't see, and she's been being all cryptic too. I don't know what she's thinking, but we should keep an eye on her, or she'll do something before we know it."

"She keeps going out alone", Zenfath chimed in. "And when I went out after her this morning, she spoke of a dark path."

All of the does stopped for a moment and shivered, each one briefly touched by something that they didn't quite understand, as if they had brushed the edges of something too large to fathom.

"If she leaves, we should go with her." Vaora said firmly after they had recovered.

"It _is_ getting crowded," Hralbrek said. "I know there's talk of starting another new warren, but perhaps it would be better to set out on our own?"

Zenfath rolled her eyes at her. "It's alright for you, you've been on a Wide Patrol. I've listened to the stories of how this warren came to be, and I can't imagine making such a journey."

Vaora shrugged. "It's up to you, and to each of us. But I'd miss you all if you stayed and I went, just as I'd miss Varuléao if she went and I did not. And it will all be beside the point if we don't watch over her, because she'll be gone without us, whether we want to go or not."

"Well, do we all agree that we should be keeping an eye on her, at least?" asked Eathristh. "We should take it in turns or it'll be really obvious, and Varuléao is quite observant, even when she's distracted."

There were nods, and, as rabbits do, they had a comforting sense that a consensus had been reached. Together, they drifted slowly to sleep.

~~~~~

Varuléao looked out into the darkness and wondered if tonight was the night to leave. She could feel something pulling at her, almost as if a wind were plucking at her fur or blowing her along from behind. She braced herself and made ready to take the first step into the darkness. Just before she hopped out, she heard Eathristh calling her name.

"Oh, Varuléao," she said hopefully. "I think I've got a thorn in my paw. Would you mind taking a look? You really are the best at getting them out without it hurting so much."

Varuléao shook herself. The tension had gone out of the threads that had been tugging her forwards with the interruption.

"Sure, I can do that. Let's head to the burrow?" she replied, trying to sound as if nothing had been about to happen.

~~~~~

Varuléao was taken completely by surprise when she came to the hedge at the bottom of the hill and found her closest friends waiting for her there. She should have known that they would all be here, but she'd been so focused on the distant calling that she'd not been aware of things closer and less strong.

"We thought you might like some company," said Vaora cheerfully.

"And the bucks are getting pushy," added Hralbrek with a grin

"And you need someone with some common sense along," chimed in Zenfath

Eathristh just wrinkled her nose nervously, the most ill at ease by far.

"I'm not going to look for a new warren, you know," Varuléao told them. "I'm going because I must, I don't know why, and if you have any sense you won't come with me."

Eathristh found her voice to reply tartly, "If we had any sense, would we be here in the first place?"

Varuléao looked at them, and despite herself, she felt her spirits lifting.

~~~~~

Skirting their way along the higher ground to the west, they had made good progress for a while, but Hralbrek was the only one of them who had been further than the farm. Varuléao was drawn on by whatever had been calling her, and now she was moving was reluctant to stop, but it soon became clear that the price of company was going to be delay. They had come upon a little rise, and at the top there was a dip where the five of them could rest. Hralbrek appointed herself lookout, and the others fell to talking.

"You know, we should have brought one or two of the bucks," said Zenfath. "I bet they wouldn't be trying to throw their weight around so much out here."

"We could have brought Chestnut", Eathristh said. "He's going to be huge once he has his growth."

"Or Dewdrop. Though I'm not sure he ever will grow into his ears," sniggered Zenfath.

"You two have no taste," Vaora sniffed. "There's more to a buck than his body. You want one like Buttercup, who has something in his head to think with."

Varuléao, who had never been very interested in comparing the merits of the bucks, tried to let it wash over her as she waited for them to be ready to move on again.

The amiable bickering was interrupted by Hralbrek a while later. "It's getting on for moonrise; we should be moving," she told them.

~~~~~

The morning was bright and clear. A lonely tree stood in the middle of a grassy field, dotted here and there with dandelions. Grey-barked and wound about with ivy, the old oak was listing badly, having survived a recent storm by the tips of its roots. Where the roots on the right had been pulled almost out of the soil, a natural hollow had formed, and the does had taken advantage of its shelter to sleep.

The first to stir was Varuléao, of course, but she waited as patiently as she could for the others to wake. Today, they made better progress, being more used to the idea that crossing ground was a goal in itself, although Vaora especially had a tendency to be distracted by anything that looked good to eat.

All went well, until they scrambled up a bank through a thick hedge and found themselves at the edge of an iron road. But what an iron road it was! Huge, too far across to see, and _hrududil_ hurtling past, far too many to count. This was clearly the source of the rushing sound that had been bothering them all for some time.

"We can't cross that," Hralbrek said, eyes wide and ears laid back. "Are the _hrududil_ running in circles, that they keep coming like that?"

"Nonetheless, I must get to the other side," Varuléao told them. "Perhaps if we follow it for a way we will find something."

They made their way slowly along the road, keeping to the shelter of the hedge. They had all been taught that it was safe to get right up to the edge of an iron road, but it certainly didn't feel like it was! The noise buffeted them even as far away as they stayed, as did the wind from the larger _hrududil_ as they passed. Varuléao was beginning to despair of finding anything when the bank they were following sloped down steeply to the right. Down the slope there was a dark emptiness that seemed to run under the iron road.

She worked her way cautiously down the bank, and found herself standing on a tongue of chalky soil sticking out of a gaping black mouth. It was too dark to see if it would take them to the other side, but Varuléao was sure she had found the way she was supposed to go, and she wished she had not. For it was a tunnel, yes, but not a tunnel made for rabbits. It was the kind of tunnel El-ahrairah must have known in the lands of Inlé. It stank of things there were no words for in lapine, and a cold, damp breeze blew out of it, touching them with the breath of the Black Rabbit. None of them wanted anything to do with it; Hralbrek, already unnerved by the iron road, seemed as if she might go _tharn_ at the prospect of entering.

Varuléao wasn't sure how long it was before she found the courage to go in. The reek overpowered her nose almost at once, and her ears were full of a wailing and rumbling before she had gone a length. Deaf, blind and helpless, she hopped forwards, too intent on making herself continue to see that her friends followed her one by one into the darkness. None of them would ever speak of the trip through that tunnel, but when they finally emerged, they were shaking and exhausted.

They got themselves into a ditch just away from the mouth of the tunnel and lay there like the dead. They weren't safe, but they slept anyway, none of them really caring if one of the Thousand came for them.

~~~~~

The day was clear and crisp. Ahead the ground rose up a little more steeply than at home. Still, the down felt comfortingly familiar to the rabbits, used as they were to the wide open space of Watership.

They set off amidst streamers of mist. Varuléao felt light-hearted, the pull on her gentle now and not so all-consuming.

They were almost to the top when they encountered another rabbit. When he saw them, he stopped dead and stared at them as if they had wings or horns. Varuléao went forward slowly to give him time to compose himself. He seemed only a little older than she was, and his scent spoke of thin living.

"But, you're all does!" he blurted as soon as he'd exchanged sniffs with them all.

Varuléao smiled as Vaora began to explain their journey to him. She had not been looking for a new warren... but perhaps they had found one.

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to Yuletide Writing and everyone who beta'd this for me!


End file.
